I am writing this on Halloween. This is one of the
'best' times in the year for me to be fishing for salmon. But, I am not
going out this evening. Or tonight either. It is too simple; too easy. It is
not fly fishing anymore for me. I may go out next week because a
friend wants me to take him out. But, the 'magic' is gone for me.

It happened once before too. Back in Michigan.
I studied the insects and the river to the point where I knew 'exactly'
what was going to happen on any given day. We (my wife and I) went
to the Au Sable river in the fall. We were all set to fish a certain insect.
All of the conditions were perfect. The hatch was on, the trout were
rising, all was well with the world.

WRONG! We knew too much.

Yes; we knew too much...

We had spoiled our trout fishing; it was
a sad day... And it was one of the BEST days I will ever
remember! We did not fish. My wife and I sat on the bank
of the river and watched as the mayflies emerged, floated
the currents, and flew off to molt for the final stage of their
short lives. We, (in our minds eye) could 'see' the nymphs
as they struggled to the surface... emerged from their nymphal
shucks, grasped for the surface of the stream, and pumped
the fluid into their wings.

And it was not only in our 'minds eye,'
we saw it happen time after time. The trout rose with studied
regularity to the event. And still we watched. We did not
'gear-up.' We only filled ourselves with the regular progression
of nature as it was laid before us. To 'harass' a trout for our
pleasure at this time was obviously a wrong thing to do.

And so we sat. On the bank and watched
the 'total' marvel develop before us; transfixed with the glory of
it all. So, why did this happen? Because we read and studied all
we could find on the subject. We investigated, first hand each tiny
bit of information we could find. Did we go 'too far?'

Yes. We took the magic from it. We took
the 'guess-work' out of it. We knew exactly what was going to
happen. Fly fishing is not that. It is investigation. It is learning,
trying, hoping, anticipating, dreaming, wishing, remembering,
wondering, and just plain being there.